Pathways Advisory Committee Hosts First Meeting Of 2025

by Bob Montgomery

The Pathways Advisory Committee includes Avon Maitland Board staff and local businesses. The committee provides recommendations and feedback regarding the Avon Maitland District School Board's Pathways promotion, and also supports planning that will enable the Board to best support students in their initial post secondary destination and ultimately to meet local industry needs.

Superintendent of Education, Paul Langis says this past week's meeting was the first of two that will be held by the Board, and the virtual meeting involved over twenty-five participants made up of Board staff and community partners that work with them. Langis says across the Province and definitely in Huron and Perth, there are more opportunities for young people to get into the trades than there have been in the past. Langis says their community partners and business owners provide a lot of input on the needs of the community and that's very helpful in preparing the students on what to expect when they enter the work force, or how they can take advantage of more apprenticeship opportunities while they're still in high school. The main focus of the meeting for them was finding out what they should be looking for in terms of students who might be interested on OYAP and level one apprenticeship training.

Langis says given the current housing shortage, there is a lot of demand in construction as well as areas like welding and electrical work that contribute to housing in our area. He says the number of students in Huron and Perth who are interested in tech courses and specialized programs seem to be much higher and then students in other parts of the Province. He says this year they'll have fifty or sixty OYAP level one apprenticeships.

Langis says within the Avon Maitland Board they do a very good job of offering those opportunities for their students, whether it's a dual credit opportunity to get into colleges and get those kinds of courses that they wouldn't necessarily get at the high school and see what college is like or whether it's doing co-ops or level one apprenticeship opportunities at the college.